Located in the field across from Moulton House is a rectangular, stone memorial plaque. It reads: “In Memory of David E. Robbins Class of 1978.” A week ago, I was walking back from cross country when I saw it for the first time. I found myself thinking, Who is David E. Robbins? Was he a past headmaster? Was he a past teacher? Was he a donor? The fact that he has a memorial tells me that he was probably an important person to Exeter. I just didn’t know why.
My curiosity got the best of me and I set out to find out who David C. Robbins is. It turns out that after David graduated from Exeter in 1978 he went to Brown University, graduated in 1983, and then became a research assistant at the Institute for East West Security Studies. I also found out that David died from injuries he got in a car accident in October of 1984. His parents, Larry and Diana Robbins, gave an endowment to Exeter to hold symposiums on third world countries and world development in David’s memory. David’s friends also gave funds to give him a memorial tree, which is the plaque in the field. Now every time I walk pass the field and I see the plaque I think about David C. Robbins and the type of person he probably was.